Judge - 66th Science & Engineering Fair of Houston (SEFH) - K12

Feb 15, 2025 by Xingpeng Li

  • It was a great experience to serve as a judge and interact with talent middle/junior and high/senior school students at the 66th Science & Engineering Fair of Houston (SEFH) in February 2025. This is my second time at SEFH.

  • Happy to meet another RPGLab member Ann Mary Toms who is currently a PhD student. She was also there as a judge.

  • Also happy to meet multiple UH colleagues as judges and other judges there.

Figure: Our SEFH Judge table with Ann Mary Toms (most left).

Figure: SEFH Judge area.

Figure: Student poster area.

Figure: Junior student poster.

Figure: Certificate of Volunteer Service.

Group Lunch - 2025 Spring

Jan 31, 2025 by Xingpeng Li

On January 31, 2025, we had a group lunch at Pondicheri, a modern Indian restaurant, to welcome our new PhD student, Sai Manisha Duvvada and a visiting PhD student from Italy Athar Ahmad.

Figure. Photos from the TAMEST 2025:

2024 Fall Commencement - Thuan Pham (PhD 2024F)

Dec 14, 2024 by Xingpeng Li

Thuan Pham attended his PhD graduation commencement today on December 14, 2024. It was a once-in-a-lifetime ceremony especially the awarded degree is the highest doctoral degree in engineering. Congratulations again! Thuan completed his PhD Defense on December 3, 2024 and graduated in the same semester.

Here are some photos we took today.

Group Lunch and UH Gaming Room

Oct 11, 2024 by Xingpeng Li

On October 11, 2024, we had a group lunch at Mala Sichuan Bistro (Westheimer) to welcome our two new on-campus PhD students, Fan Jiang and Linhan Fang. This is the first time we had a group meal at an off-campus restaurant. After lunch, we went to the Gaming Room at Student Center South, our third time there.

Figure 1. Group photo at the Beginning of the lunch, eight of us.

Figure 2. Group photo at the End of the lunch, with alumnus Arun joined us.

Figure 3. Billiard.

Figure 4. Ping Pong.

Judge - 65th Science & Engineering Fair of Houston (SEFH) - K12

Feb 17, 2024 by Xingpeng Li

It was a great experience to serve as a judge and interact with talent middle/junior and high/senior school students at the 65th Science & Engineering Fair of Houston (SEFH) in February 2024. SEFH brings middle and high school students from all over southeast Texas together to compete annually in different STEM fields.

Figure: SEFH Front Look.

Figure: SEFH Schedule.

Figure: Group of Judges for Energy & Transportation.

Figure: Judging…

Figure: UH College of Engineering is a sponsor for SEFH.

Figure: A big picture of the event/competition.

2023 Fall Commencement - Cunzhi Zhao (PhD 2023F)

Dec 16, 2023 by Xingpeng Li

Cunzhi Zhao attended his PhD graduation commencement today on December 16, 2023. It was a once-in-a-lifetime ceremony especially the awarded degree is the highest doctoral degree in engineering. Congratulations again! Cunzhi completed his PhD Defense on November 7, 2023 and graduated in the same semester.

Here are some photos we took today.

Figure 1. Hooding.

Figure 2. Hooding 2.

Figure 3. Photo before hooding.

Figure 4. Graduates Waiting Area.

Figure 5. Begining of the Commencement - Dean’s speech.

Group Thanksgiving Party 2023

Nov 18, 2023 by Xingpeng Li

This year is our 2nd time to have a Group Thanksgiving Party at our home. It's good for the team to take a break from busy research work and have some fun together. In addition to almost all the current members, two alumni also joined us!

We had good dinner and then played UNO and Texas hold'em Poker. I wanted to thank my wife here for preparing all the food! We had the kabob, lamb, beef, pork, chicken, duck, baked sweet potato, corn, garlic naan, cheese cake, snacks, fruits, soft drinks, and beer...

A few group photos were taken as attached below.

Figure 1. Game Time - UNO. (People from me in clockwise around the table: Xingpeng Li, Qianxue Xia, Jin Lu, Amaze Anna Toms, Ann Mary Toms, Jesus Silva-Rodriguez, Cunzhi Zhao, Arun Venkatesh Ramesh, Elias Raffoul, Rida Fatima, Hassan Zahid Butt)

Figure 2. Game Time - Texas Poker - Last Round.

Figure 3. Dinner Time. (People from left to right: Elias Raffoul, Jesus Silva-Rodriguez, Hassan Zahid Butt, Ann Mary Toms, Rida Fatima, Amaze Anna Toms, Qianxue Xia, Jin Lu, Arun Venkatesh Ramesh, Cunzhi Zhao)

Figure 4. Dinner Buffet - food after one round…

Mingjian Graduation Party 06/2022

Jun 23, 2023 by Xingpeng Li

The group is celebrating Mingjian's PhD graduation!